The tricolour's contested origins show how myths are made

The first to combine orange, white and green was forgotten patriot Emilia Eleanor Hamilton, who crafted an orange, white and green cockade to be ‘worn near the heart of every Irishman’, writes John Crotty

What the future holds for the Irish tricolour, contested once more in its use by anti-migration factions, we cannot yet say. That chapter is still being written. File picture: Denis Minihane

One could be forgiven for thinking we know all there is to know about Irish history. 

However, we live in a remarkable time in which technology is not so much revising the history books as recommencing them. New tools of analysis have brought new understanding, with my focus on the emergence of the Irish tricolour flag.